Federal regulators will make their next move on risk retention and defining qualified residential mortgages in September, according to the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission is working on a number of long-pending MBS rules, including the so-called Reg AB2. The Fed expects to take “further action” on risk retention in September, according to its latest regulatory agenda. The SEC, which is jointly working on the risk-retention rule with the Fed and other agencies, was vague, stating that the next action date was “undetermined.” Regulators have received...

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will begin disseminating information for so-called specified-pool MBS issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, as well as securities backed by loans with Small Business Administration guarantees. The move is aimed at increasing transparency in specified pools, which represent an estimated 3,500 trades, totaling $18 billion in par value, on an average daily basis. It follows a similar effort by FINRA last year in the to-be-announced market for agency MBS. Transaction data will be circulated...

The audience for the marketing of private-placement securities is set to increase due to changes approved last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Separately, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority voted to increase transparency for consumer ABS private placements, prompting some to suggest that FINRA could also increase transparency for private-placement non-agency MBS. The SEC voted 4-1 to adopt a new rule to implement a JOBS Act requirement to lift the ban on general solicitation or general advertising for certain private securities offerings offered under Rule 506. The SEC also amended Rule 144A, which covers private placements of non-agency MBS and other securities. Under the new rule, offers of 144A securities can be made...

New MBS and ABS issuance slowed in the second quarter of 2013 as rising interest rates in June stalled the market’s momentum. A total of $495.4 billion in residential MBS and non-mortgage ABS were issued during the second quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis. That was down 3.7 percent from the first quarter of the year, although total production during the first half of 2013 was still up 17.8 percent from the same period last year. June was...[Includes one data chart]

Japan became the biggest overseas investor in U.S. MBS and ABS markets last year, moving past mainland China to head the ranking, according to final Treasury Department data. Japanese investors held $199.7 billion of U.S. MBS and ABS as of the midway point in 2012, the one time a year when Treasury releases detailed foreign holdings of U.S. long-term securities. That was up 21.3 percent from June 2011, when Japan held just $164.7 billion of MBS and ABS. The Japanese increased...[Includes one data chart]

Investors in vintage non-agency MBS could take $7.8 billion in losses due to previously undisclosed principal forbearance on top of the $1.0 billion in losses uncovered this month. However, a survey suggests that servicers don’t intend to pass the losses through to investors. The losses recognized in May were reported after Ocwen Financial took over servicing from Homeward Residential. Analysts warned that other servicing transfers could prompt similar losses. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said...

Nationstar Mortgage, which has been feasting on legacy packages of mortgage servicing rights the past three years, recently priced $2 billion of asset-backed term notes and variable funding notes. The term notes are for $1 billion, as are the VFNs. The debt carries a weighted average rate of 2.10 percent and a term of three years. The notes replace $1.9 billion of existing non-agency advance facilities “and are expected to result in a reduction in rate of 1.75 percent, the nonbank servicer said. When Nationstar and other well-heeled servicers buy...

JPMorgan Chase is set to issue a unique jumbo MBS, its second of the year, that will include originations from 20 different lenders that far outweigh the company’s contributions to the deal. Another bank, EverBank, this week took steps to issue its second jumbo deal of 2013 as well. Since 2008, big banks have largely held their non-agency jumbo originations in portfolio, seeing better execution than non-agency MBS issuance. However, strong demand from non-agency MBS investors and a desire to shrink mortgage exposure has prompted Chase to resume issuing jumbo MBS. Chase declined...

Bank and thrift holdings of non-mortgage ABS declined slightly in the first quarter of 2013, but remained well above a year ago, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. Banks and thrifts held $163.7 billion of ABS in portfolio as of the end of March, off 0.5 percent from the previous quarter. But early 2013 holdings were up 9.0 percent from the first quarter of last year, including increases in most ABS categories. The call-report ABS data include...[Includes one data chart]

Standard & Poor’s was the most active rating service in the non-mortgage ABS market during the first quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis, while DBRS continued to dominate the non-agency MBS space. S&P rated a total of $31.9 billion of newly issued ABS during the first three months of the year, or 67.8 percent of total issuance. That was up from the company’s 58.1 percent share of ABS ratings for all of 2012. S&P was particularly strong in rating credit card ABS, covering 86.1 percent of that market after grading just 50.3 percent of last year’s card deals. Because nearly all public deals have multiple ratings, the sum of the ratings by firms exceeds...[Includes two data charts]